Rabbi's Message

Machshavot HaRav: Reflections from Rabbi Waxman

A Hope for the New Year

5784 has not ended on a good note. The Israelis, in conjunction with the US Navy, may have neutralized the 181 ballistic missiles launched from Iran on Tuesday evening, but it is difficult to be sanguine about what the future holds for Israel and its citizens. The missiles failed in their mission to do more than minor damage to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and some air bases—mostly from the shrapnel-- but clearly they have reminded all Israelis of their vulnerability.

Centuries ago, the prophet Jeremiah (1:14) declared “MeTsafon Tepatach HaRa’ah, from the north shall evil break loose.” He may have been speaking about the threat posed by the Babylonians. Today the threat is from Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as Iranian proxies in Syria. And the north is heating up, especially after the death of Nasrallah.

My colleague Rabbi Jonathan Matt compiles a list of biblical phrases which via gematria, the assigning of numeral value to the Hebrew letters, offer some hints as to the coming year, 5785. (Actually, only the 5785 part.) Among the passage he offers are from Exodus 31:3 “I have filled him with the spirit of God” and “beautiful is my beloved” from the Song of Songs (1:15). But the one that I think best encapsulates our hope for this coming year is a passage from Isaiah (52:7): “the feet of the herald of good tidings.” Good tidings should include news of cessation of hostilities.

May this new year be one filled with good tidings for us, for Israel, for this nation, and indeed for the entire world. Amen.

Wishing you and your family Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah uMetukah, a good and sweet year.

P.S. If you are not serviced out, Friday night on Zoom:

Here is the link for our Friday evening service at 8 p.m.:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83736031460

Meeting ID: 837 3603 1460

Shabbat morning in the sanctuary at 10 a.m.

Beginning on Sunday the 6^th there will be a couple commemorations of October 7^th. At noon the Masorti/Conservative Movement will sponsor a 2-hour program, spanning the globe. Here is the link to register:

https://form.jotform.com/242372778728066

If you have difficulty with that link, go to mercazusa.org and you will find a link to the program.

On Monday, the 7^th, there will be a communal program at the JCC at 12 noon.

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Payrush LaParashah: A Comment on the Weekly Torah Portion

The Torah Reading for the First Day of Rosh HaShanah (Thursday, October 3^rd) is Genesis 21:1-34. The Maftir Reading is

Numbers 29:1-6.

21:9 Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing. (10) She said to Abraham, “Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance of my son Isaac.” (11) The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his.

21:11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his. Even though Ishmael was the son of a slave-woman, he was at the same time also Avraham’s son, and he loved him as a father loves one’s son, especially seeing that he was his firstborn. He was merciful towards him like a father is merciful to all his children. Moreover, he had taught him to behave and had taught him the ways of the Lord. In fact, if he, Avraham, had taught all and sundry the ways of the Lord, he had most certainly not neglected to teach these ways to his own son. Therefore, the request by Sarah to expel his own son was a source of great chagrin to him. Avraham kept his chagrin to himself and did not express anger at his wife as he was concerned with preserving Shalom Bayit, peaceful marital relations with his wife. This was the state of affairs until God intervened in the matter. (Rabbi David Kimchi—translation, courtesy of Sefaria. Rabbi David Kimchi, — also spelled Kimhi or Qimchi—, known as the Radak, was born in 1160 in Narbonne, Provence, the son of Rabbi Joseph and the brother of Rabbi Moses, who were both grammarians and biblical commentators. He was raised by his brother, as his father died when he was young, and David Kimchi would go on to teach in Narbonne. His first work was in philology: Michlol [The Perfection]. It was eventually published in two parts: the first half Chelek HaDikduk [The Grammatical Section] was first published in 1532 and was known as the Michlol; the second section, had been published decades earlier in 1480 as Sefer HaShorashim [The Book of Roots]. He is also noted for his Bible commentaries, primarily on the Books of the Prophets. There, his commentary appears along with that of Rashi’s as one of the two principal commentaries in standard versions of the Mikraot Gedolot. Moreover, he wrote commentaries on Genesis, Psalms and Chronicles. The commentaries on the Psalms and the Prophetic books were among the earliest Hebrew books printed, having been issued in 1477 and 1482, respectively. The Chronicles commentary appeared in the following century, but the commentary on Genesis was only first published in 1842! His commentaries are laced with anti-Christian polemics, demonstrating Christian misrepresentation of the text and the Christian tendency to allegorize biblical texts. His polemical material on Psalms was later collected and printed separately in 1644 as Teshuvot la-Nozerim [Responses to the Christians]. Nonetheless, his commentaries were used by the translators of the King James Bible. He was involved in the Maimonidean controversy of the 1230’s and he undertook a journey to Toledo to gain the support of Judah ibn Al-Fakar, who was an opponent of the Maimonideans. Although illness prevented the completion of the journey, his correspondence with the latter has survived. He died in 1235.)

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The Torah reading for the Second Day of Rosh HaShanah (Friday, October 4^th) is Genesis 22:1-24). The Maftir reading is Numbers 29:1-6.

Genesis 22:1 Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him, “Abraham,” and he answered, “Here I am.” (2) And he said, “Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, an d go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the heights that I will point out To you.” (3) So early next morning, Abraham saddled his ass and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he set out for the place of which God had told him.

“Rabbi, why do we have to read this story every year?”

A distressed congregant used to ask me this question annually before the Rosh HaShanah recitation of the Akeidah, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22;1-24). As a rabbi, I find that Jews treat this story like a textual albatross around our necks. We can apologize for it or try to rationalize it, but we cannot ignore the father of our faith setting off with grim determination to slaughter his beloved son at God’s command.

In everyday life, when someone claims to hear god’s voice, most people respond with skepticism and—depending on what “God’s voice” is telling that person to do—alarm. And yet, as Jews in America, we support the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. It is “the bulwark of religious freedom and interfaith amity” that has mad America a refuge for Jews. We live in the tension of wanting limitless religious freedom for ourselves and, at the same time, limits on religious expressions that cause harm.

The Akeidah is the tale par excellence of a faith-possessed zealot embracing barbarism under the banner of piety. What kind of free exercise of faith are we defending if the Akeidah is our paradigm? Fortunately, studying Parashat Vayeira closely offers a different model. By exploring how Jewish tradition has resolved a tension within this portion, we can construct a nuanced approach religious liberty that might inform Jewish advocacy and communal relations in twenty-first century America.

There can be little doubt that God rewards Abraham for his willingness to carry out the ritual filicide. “For now, I know,” says the angel, “that you are one who fears God (y’rei Elokim) (Genesis 22:12). We may look for interpretive slaves to dull the text’s meaning, but it is hard to avoid the p’shat, the plain meaning, of the text: God’s proof that Abraham “fears God” is precisely Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice “your son, your only one.’…

A major thrust of Jewish tradition amplifies the humane, ethical version of yirart Elokim [the fear of God], in contrast to Abraham’s fanatical devotion. Israeli scholar Avi Sagi summarizes this view: “The Akeidah is no longer a paradigm of religious life but a one-time event at the dawn of history, a plea to God for compassion and mercy. Religious life is not cruelty, but pity and compassion, and these are required, above all, from God.” The Akeidah should be compartmentalized as a unique liminal moment, not treated as an exemplar to emulate… (Rabbi David SegaL, “Vayeira—Genesis 18:22-24; The Abraham Bind: The Akeidah and Religious Freedom” in Rabbi Barry H. Block, editor, The Social Justice Torah Commentary, pp.21-23. Rabbi Segal was born and raised in Houston and graduated with a B.A. in Classics and Jewish Studies from Princeton. He then spent two years working at the Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center in Washington. In 2010 he was ordained as a rabbi at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. For the next 7 years, he and his wife, Cantor Rollin Simmons, served as co-clergy of the Aspen Jewish Congregation. In 2014, The Forward named him as one of America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis. In 2017, he and his wife relocated to Houston, where his wife began serving as cantor at Temple Emanu El, a position which she continues to occupy. For several years, Rabbi Segal worked as a regional organizer for the Religious Action Center and did freelance religious writing for the Houston Chronicle. He began law school 3 years ago and graduated from the University of Houston Law Center this past spring. He has recently begun clerking for the Honorable Magistrate Judge Yvonne Ho, Southern District of Texas - Houston Division. He dabbles in stand-up comedy with a trio, Three Rabbis Walk Into a Bar.)

The portion of Ha’azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-520 is read this Saturday, October 5^th.

32:9 For the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment. (10) He found them in a desert region, in an empty howling waste. He engirded him, watched over him, guarded him as the pupil of His eye.

32:10 [God] found them. By using this verb, the poet hints at several possible metaphors for the people Israel. What did God find in the wilderness? Hosea 9:10 employs the same verb when God reminisces: “Like grapes, in the wilderness I found Israel: like the first fig to ripen on a fig tree, I saw your ancestors.” Ezekiel imagines God finding something different when he narrates how God discovered Israel as an abandoned baby girl. According to Ezekiel 16:3-6, Israel was rejected on the day of her birth and left to die in an open field. God passed by, saw Israel wallowing in her blood, and resolved to save the baby girl. “In your blood, live!” Thus, perhaps the language in this passage evokes images of Israel as an abandoned girl or succulent fruit.

Desert region. As in this verse, several prophetic passages look back nostalgically at the journey through the wilderness following the exodus from Egypt. For example, Jeremiah speaks of the time when Israel followed God in the wilderness with the devotion of a young bride (Jeremiah 2:2-3; see also 31:2-3; Hosea 2:16-17). Such depictions differ drastically from the way other parts of the Torah depict this period (compare, for instance 9:7 or Numbers 16-17). Andrea L. Weiss, “Haazinu” The Song of Moses: A Foretelling of Future Events” in Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, editors, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. Rabbi Weiss received her B.A. in English from Berkley in 1987 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She was ordained at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1993, having received several prizes for excellence in biblical studies as well as in Talmud. In 2004, she was awarded her doctorate from the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Civilization of the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was “Figurative Language in Biblical Prose Narrative: Metaphor in the Book of Samuel.” Since 2000 she has been a member of the faculty of HUC-JIR in New York and since 2018 has served as provost. She also is associate professor of Bible. In addition to co-editing The Torah: A Women’s Commentary and having her dissertation published in 2006, she is the co-editor along with Lisa Weinberger of American Values: Religious Voice: 100 Days, 100 Letters, which appeared in 2019. A second volume appeared in 2022. Additionally, she has written a couple of dozen articles in the field of Bible, including several pieces on Biblical poetry, one of which is included in The Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish History. She is married to a son of members of my first congregation in Long Branch, New Jersey.)

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Questions for Ha’azinu 5785 (Deuteronomy 32:1-52)

1. What is the function of earth and heaven?
2. Verse 4 is recited liturgically. When and where?
3. God is called HaTsur, the Rock in verse 4. Where else in the Torah is it to be found? Where in the prayerbook?
4. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint suggest that the final phrase in verse 8 is L’mispar B’nay Ayleem, in relation to the number of divine beings. Is this an improvement on the Masoretic text?
5. Does verse 10 represent an alternate origins history of Israel?
6. What delicacies were granted to God’s people in the land of Israel?
7. Who was Jeshurun mentioned in verse 15? Where does one find the use of the term today?
8. What was Sheol? Where else is it mentioned in the Torah?
9. Why would God not totally destroy an unfaithful Israel?
10. Where are Sodom and Gomorrah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, other than here and in Genesis?
11. In verse 39 there is the phrase “there is no god beside Me.” Is this an indication of a belief in monotheism or monolatry?
12. Were the long-haired enemy chiefs mentioned in verse 42 progenitors of the Vikings?
13. Explain the final verse of the poem. Is Israel to be banished from the land or are Israel’s enemies to be destroyed?
14. Locate Mount Nebo on a map.
15. What gift did God offer Moses before he died?

Questions for the Haftorah of Shabbat Shuvah (Hosea 14:2-10 and Joel 2:15-27)

1. Only one other haftorah combines selections from more than one prophet, who are the two prophets?
2. Hosea 14:6-7 echoes what familiar psalm?
3. Were Hosea and Joel contemporaries?
4. Where else in the Bible does the phrase “Where is their God” appear?
5. What was the eastern Sea? The Western Sea?
6. Where else in the Bible do we find the concept of different kinds of rain? (Hint: one is found in the prayerbook.)